Before the War
Before the Soviet Union invasion of Afghanistan in December of 1979, there were already troubles in Afghanistan. At the time the President of Afghanistan was Hafizullah Amin, whose goals for the country were considered radical by some. Amin wanted to get rid of Muslim traditions and began to try and slant the country towards more of a western style, such as the United States of America. These new ideas were disliked by a large group called the Mujahidin, a guerrilla force on a holy mission from Allah whom declared jihad, a holy war, upon Amin and the government. This jihad extended to the Soviet Union as they invaded their country.
The Soviet Union Invasion
Soviet Spetsnaz
In April of 1978 a Marxist coup occurred in Kabul, Afghanistan’s capital. By December 1979 the Soviet invasion started. A three day operation began on Christmas Eve as paratroopers landed in the city of Kabul. The Soviets came claiming that they were invited into the country under a 1978 friendship treaty between the two countries. Their first act upon arriving to the country was assassinating Hafizullah Amin on December 27, 1979 and replacing him with a man by the name of Babrak Karmal. Karmal was a political rival of Amin that was retrieved by the Soviet Union from duty as an Afghan ambassador to Czechoslovakia. The Soviets could use Karmal as a figurehead that they could control behind the scenes.
After the
The HQ of the Soviet 40th Army. Amin was killed here.
Soviet invasion, the Russians claimed that they came in order to support a legitimate government and stated that the opposing Mujahidin were terrorists. The speculated reasons that they really came to Afghanistan were that the Soviets wanted to expand their influence in Asia, protect their interests in Afghanistan from neighboring countries, preserve the collapsing Communist government in Afghanistan, protect their southern border, and gain access to water shipping routes. By helping the government in Afghanistan, Communism would increase in power, in turn making the Soviet Union stronger.
Mujahidin Troops
The Mujahideen were formidable opponents to the Afghanistan government troops and Soviet Union soldiers. Factions made up the Mujahidin which consisted of many races and ethnicities of men in Afghanistan. They fought as guerrillas in the mountains of the country and knew the terrain like the back of their hand. Fueled by religious reasons and the survival of their family, Mujahidin soldiers battled fiercely for their homeland and ideals. A man by the name of Ishaq Gailani, a leader in the Mujahidin, said in a National Geographic article that “When we go to jihad today, it’s not because we want to fight, but because we are compelled to fight for the sake of Islam, and the freedom of Afghanistan.” This quote epitomizes the Mujahidin’s view upon the war.
At points during the war there were nearly 100,000 Soviet Union soldiers in Afghanistan opposing the Mujahidin. Intense fighting forced nearly a quarter of the fifteen million people populating Afghanistan to flee to the neighboring countries of Iran and Pakistan where they set up refugee camps.
By 1982 the Mujahidin controlled nearly 75% of Afghanistan even thoug
Soviets Withdrawing
h they lacked the technology of Russian helicopter gunships, poison gas, and napalm. Mikhail Gorbachev pulled the Soviet Union out of Afghanistan during February of 1989, nine years after the invasion. There were numerous reasons for him to do so such as the war was too unpopular for a government dealing with the repression of its own people, too expensive for the failing Soviet economy, and very humiliating for what was supposed to be the invincible Red Army of Russia. As the Soviets pulled out of Afghanistan, they left many of their weapons behind such as tanks and trucks.
Abandoned Tanks
By the end of the war 15,000 Soviet troops and nearly a million Afghans had been killed during the war. As the Russians pulled out of Afghanistan, the country was left in turmoil due to instability and infighting between Mujahidin factions.
Doorways for Russian Invasion
As a civil war was already on its way between Amin's government and the Mujahidin, Russia was able to enter into Afghanistan insisting that they were only there to support the government of Amin after having been invited in. After entering Afghanistan, they were able to force their views of communism even more than Amin had already done and put Babrak Karmal into power after assassinating Amin. It is believed that Russia had been secretly financing Afghan communists from before the formation of the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) in 1965 until the party rose to power through a military coup d'état on April 27, 1978. This secret financing allowed for communistic viewsto spread through some leaders of Afghanistan and made it easier to invade when more communistic leaders came into power. The United State’s Involvement
As the war began, the United States put a ban on exports to Russia and boycotted the 1980 Olympics in Moscow. The United States firmly supported the Mujahidin throughout the war, though not directly. This support was to keep the war raging against America’s number one competition in the world, the Soviet Union and harm the growth of communism. From 1979 to 1985, 325 million dollars had been channeled through the American C.I.A. to its counterpart in Pakistan, the ISI, who then transferred the money to the commanders of the Mujahidin. This donated money took the form of Soviet made small arms, anti-tank missiles, and SAM-7 anti-air missiles. Financial and motivational support came from the Americans throughout the entire war.
Americans did not intervene to try and stop the war because they knew the mess the Soviet Union had gotten themselves into. The Americans thought this war was the Soviet Union’s own version of Vietnam. Additionally, by allowing the Russians to fight, Americans could gather intelligence and see new Russian military hardware that was being used in Afghanistan.
Reasons for Russian Failure
The reasons for Russia's failure in their invasion can be compared very similarly to the reasons for America's failures in Vietnam. Even though Russia had much better equipment and weapons such as helicopters, tanks, and machine guns, the Afghanistans who resisted Russian rule had much better knowledge of the terrain and weather patterns of Afghanistan. The Afghanistans lacked in weaponary but had lived in the mountains of Afghanistan and knew how to maneuver around them much better than Russia did. With this knowledge, the Afghanistans were able to hold off the Russians and prevent them from moving throughout the country. The tanks of Russia also proved to be of little value in the mountainous region of Afghanistan. The uniforms of Russian soldiers also did not prove sufficient in the mountainous regions of Afghanistan as the boots of the Russians were said to have lasted about ten days in the mountains of Afghanistan. Another major factor that contributed to the failure of Russia's invasion was the Afghanistan people's love for their religion. They had no desire to become communist and lose their religion they had practiced for years and fought to the death to keep this religion from being taken from them. The Russian army also had no experience with guerrilla warfare and could not defend themselves against the Afghanistan people who practiced this type of fighting against the Russians.
Aftermath of the War
The war left Afghanistan with severe political, economic, and ecological problems. More than 1 million Afghans died in the war and 5 million became refugees in neighboring countries. In addition, 15,000 Soviet soldiers were killed and 37,000 wounded. The Afghanistan economy suffered greatly and was in ruins after the war. The land of Afghanistan proved to be dangerous to the Afghani people for years after the war as land mines occupied many different areas throughout the country. The Afghani people who fought to fight off the Russians never united together after the war and resulted in a division within Afghanistan. These political divisions set the stage for the rise of the Taliban later on and more periods of fighting and death for the people of Afghanistan.
Before the War
Before the Soviet Union invasion of Afghanistan in December of 1979, there were already troubles in Afghanistan. At the time the President of Afghanistan was Hafizullah Amin, whose goals for the country were considered radical by some. Amin wanted to get rid of Muslim traditions and began to try and slant the country towards more of a western style, such as the United States of America. These new ideas were disliked by a large group called the Mujahidin, a guerrilla force on a holy mission from Allah whom declared jihad, a holy war, upon Amin and the government. This jihad extended to the Soviet Union as they invaded their country.
The Soviet Union Invasion
In April of 1978 a Marxist coup occurred in Kabul, Afghanistan’s capital. By December 1979 the Soviet invasion started. A three day operation began on Christmas Eve as paratroopers landed in the city of Kabul. The Soviets came claiming that they were invited into the country under a 1978 friendship treaty between the two countries. Their first act upon arriving to the country was assassinating Hafizullah Amin on December 27, 1979 and replacing him with a man by the name of Babrak Karmal. Karmal was a political rival of Amin that was retrieved by the Soviet Union from duty as an Afghan ambassador to Czechoslovakia. The Soviets could use Karmal as a figurehead that they could control behind the scenes.
After the
The Mujahideen were formidable opponents to the Afghanistan government troops and Soviet Union soldiers. Factions made up the Mujahidin which consisted of many races and ethnicities of men in Afghanistan. They fought as guerrillas in the mountains of the country and knew the terrain like the back of their hand. Fueled by religious reasons and the survival of their family, Mujahidin soldiers battled fiercely for their homeland and ideals. A man by the name of Ishaq Gailani, a leader in the Mujahidin, said in a National Geographic article that “When we go to jihad today, it’s not because we want to fight, but because we are compelled to fight for the sake of Islam, and the freedom of Afghanistan.” This quote epitomizes the Mujahidin’s view upon the war.
At points during the war there were nearly 100,000 Soviet Union soldiers in Afghanistan opposing the Mujahidin. Intense fighting forced nearly a quarter of the fifteen million people populating Afghanistan to flee to the neighboring countries of Iran and Pakistan where they set up refugee camps.
By 1982 the Mujahidin controlled nearly 75% of Afghanistan even thoug
By the end of the war 15,000 Soviet troops and nearly a million Afghans had been killed during the war. As the Russians pulled out of Afghanistan, the country was left in turmoil due to instability and infighting between Mujahidin factions.
Doorways for Russian Invasion
As a civil war was already on its way between Amin's government and the Mujahidin, Russia was able to enter into Afghanistan insisting that they were only there to support the government of Amin after having been invited in. After entering Afghanistan, they were able to force their views of communism even more than Amin had already done and put Babrak Karmal into power after assassinating Amin. It is believed that Russia had been secretly financing Afghan communists from before the formation of the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) in 1965 until the party rose to power through a military coup d'état on April 27, 1978. This secret financing allowed for communistic viewsto spread through some leaders of Afghanistan and made it easier to invade when more communistic leaders came into power.
The United State’s Involvement
As the war began, the United States put a ban on exports to Russia and boycotted the 1980 Olympics in Moscow. The United States firmly supported the Mujahidin throughout the war, though not directly. This support was to keep the war raging against America’s number one competition in the world, the Soviet Union and harm the growth of communism. From 1979 to 1985, 325 million dollars had been channeled through the American C.I.A. to its counterpart in Pakistan, the ISI, who then transferred the money to the commanders of the Mujahidin. This donated money took the form of Soviet made small arms, anti-tank missiles, and SAM-7 anti-air missiles. Financial and motivational support came from the Americans throughout the entire war.
Americans did not intervene to try and stop the war because they knew the mess the Soviet Union had gotten themselves into. The Americans thought this war was the Soviet Union’s own version of Vietnam. Additionally, by allowing the Russians to fight, Americans could gather intelligence and see new Russian military hardware that was being used in Afghanistan.
Reasons for Russian Failure
The reasons for Russia's failure in their invasion can be compared very similarly to the reasons for America's failures in Vietnam. Even though Russia had much better equipment and weapons such as helicopters, tanks, and machine guns, the Afghanistans who resisted Russian rule had much better knowledge of the terrain and weather patterns of Afghanistan. The Afghanistans lacked in weaponary but had lived in the mountains of Afghanistan and knew how to maneuver around them much better than Russia did. With this knowledge, the Afghanistans were able to hold off the Russians and prevent them from moving throughout the country. The tanks of Russia also proved to be of little value in the mountainous region of Afghanistan. The uniforms of Russian soldiers also did not prove sufficient in the mountainous regions of Afghanistan as the boots of the Russians were said to have lasted about ten days in the mountains of Afghanistan. Another major factor that contributed to the failure of Russia's invasion was the Afghanistan people's love for their religion. They had no desire to become communist and lose their religion they had practiced for years and fought to the death to keep this religion from being taken from them. The Russian army also had no experience with guerrilla warfare and could not defend themselves against the Afghanistan people who practiced this type of fighting against the Russians.
Aftermath of the War
The war left Afghanistan with severe political, economic, and ecological probl